The IOF have step up security measures around the Ibrahimi Mosque on Thursday while raiding and searching the shops and houses surrounding it.

Eyewitnesses confirmed to PIC that dozens of Israeli soldiers were on the Ibrahimi Mosque entrances, checking the worshipers' identity cards, and raided shops and houses close to the mosque causing a state of fear among the citizens.

One Israeli soldier had been stabbed at the Ibrahimi mosque entrance in the last few days by a citizen of the town of Halhoul north of the city.

Dozens of Israeli settlers have prevented, on Thursday, the residents of Yatta town to the south of Al-Khalil from going to their farms, and intercepted the citizens near Dora.

Local sources stated that settlers of Maon settlement which is established on Palestinian lands to the east of Yatta town prevented residents from accessing their agricultural lands and harvesting wheat and barley, and threatened them for the fifth day running under IOF protection.

Eyewitnesses also affirmed to PIC that settlers from Negohot settlement which is established on Dora town's lands intercepted citizens who were wondering on their lands near the settlement where they had gathered in an attempt to attack the citizens.

Israeli settlers escalated deliberate attacks on Palestinians in southern Al-Khalil during recent days under IOF protection where they threw stones at citizens' houses and vehicles in southern Dora town while the soldiers attacked people with tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets.

Settlers chopped down dozens of olive trees in the district of Hebron on Friday, a local activist said.

Rateb al-Jabour, from the popular committee against the wall and settlements, said the trees belonged to Ali al-Arda from Yatta.

Jabour appealed to international organizations to help remove the "settlement cancer" which is eating Palestinian land.

Israeli forces were present during the incident, Jabour said.

Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is systematic in the West Bank.

Over 90 percent of villages which have experienced multiple attacks by settlers are under Israeli security control, The Palestine Center says, meaning local Palestinians only have the official protection of an army which they claim ignores settler violence.

According to outlines of the agreement, buildings will not be demolished, residents will agree to leave peacefully.

Talks are underway between a group of right-wing activists and representatives of the attorney general’s office and the Prime Minister’s Office, in an effort to reach an agreement over the apartment buildings in Beit El’s Ulpana neighborhood, Haaretz has learned.

According to the outlines of the agreement, the buildings will not be demolished. In exchange, the residents will agree to leave peacefully. Among the representatives at the talks are Yesha Council of settlements head Dani Dayan and MK Yaakov Katz ?(National Union?). Beit El’s rabbi, Zalman Melamed, is receiving reports on the talks.

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein and cabinet secretary Zvi Hauser are representing the government in the talks.

“The hope is that the residents will be able to return, after an agreement is made with the owner of the land, of course,” an individual involved in the talks told Haaretz.

Since the Knesset rejected the bill legalizing the houses on Ulpana Hill on Wednesday, numerous tents have been put up in the outpost by people who want to be on hand for the evacuation. Signs have gone up in the neighborhood with various slogans. One called on people to “delay the injustice as much as possible.”

Netanyahu’s decision to compensate the settlers for evacuation of the Ulpana neigborhood by constructing 851 apartments east of the Green Line was harshly criticized by the United States and the Palestinian Authority.

Netanyahu and Housing and Construction Minister Ariel Atias decided that 300 apartments would be built in Beit El, and another 551 units will be constructed in other settlements.

Members of Kadima had stated repeatedly before the vote that it was only because Kadima had joined the coalition that the bill would not pass.

However, with publication of the conditions of the “sweetening of the pot” presented by Netanyahu, one Knesset member said, “Kadima in fact gave the seal of approval to the renewal of significant construction in the settlements.”

Kadima MK Yoel Hasson, who had until recently been identified with the camp of former party chairwoman Tzipi Livni, said on Thursday, “Israel will pay dearly in the international arena for Netanyahu’s decision to placate the extreme right.” Meretz chairwoman Zahava Gal-On said Netanyahu “gets a zero for leadership when he tries to set a price for upholding a court ruling.”

Vandals on Friday spray-painted "Death to Arabs" and "revenge" on cars in a village west of Jerusalem, the Israeli news site Ynet reported.

Vandals also scrawled "regards from Ulpana" on vehicles and slashed tires in Neve Shalom, Ynet said.

Israel's Knesset on Wednesday upheld a High Court decision to evacuate five homes in Ulpana, an illegal outpost built on Palestinian land near Ramallah. The same day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved 851 new homes in Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank.

"Regards from Havat Gilad" was also scrawled on an elementary school in Neve Shalom, referring to another illegal outpost in the West Bank, the report said.

Palestinians in the West Bank were attacked in various locations on Thursday morning by settlers.

Settlers attacked Palestinian vehicles on Thursday morning in the south of Nablus and threw stones at the vehicles.

Ghassan Daghlas, head of settlement files in the north of the West Bank, said that settlers from Gilad settlement ambushed vehicles near the town of Hawara and attacked the vehicles by throwing stones.

He pointed out that many settlers organize themselves in the south of the city to attack Palestinian residents and their vehicles.

In Khader village, south of Bethlehem, reports that settlers from the Elazar settlement uprooted and stole metal corners and barbed wire that demarcated land boundaries of many farmers in the village.

Ahmad Salah, coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Khader, said that the land owners were surprised on Thursday morning when they realized their barbed wire and metal corners were uprooted as it covered an area of around two and half acres.

Pamphlets found on the farmers lands belonged to the Israeli group Women in Green, which is led by the extremist Nadia Matar. This group attacks Palestinian property with the aim to push Palestinians off the land so settlers can seize it.

Furthermore, settlers of Ma’un and Hafat Ma’un settlement, east of Yatta in the South of Hebron, attacked farmers on Thursday morning in the east of Yatta and forbade them from harvesting their wheat and barley.

Ratib al-Jabour, coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in southern Hebron, said that the settlers, protected by soldiers, attacked the farmers and shepherds and prevented them from harvesting their lands and replant what the settlers had destroyed a few days ago.

The Peace Now movement revealed an Israeli plan to build a tourist center in Ein Silwan district south of the Aqsa Mosque.

Spokeswoman for Peace Now Hagit Ofran stated on Thursday that the settlers of Gilad society intend to exploit the tourist sector to justify and carry out their future settlement plans.

Ofran said the district committee for planning and building would discuss this plan next Monday.

She expressed its dismay at the Israeli government for supporting settlement projects in east Jerusalem.

For his part, director of Wadi Hilwa information center Jawad Siyam stated that there are settlement activities of a tourist type in Jerusalem to impose a history that does not exist, noting that the tourist center of Gilad society is part of a wider settlement project called the holy basin.

He affirmed that the Israeli government and its settlers target all the Palestinian lands and real estate in east Jerusalem and they use all means to gradually seize them and expel the Palestinian natives from the holy city.

Jewish settlers Thursday rampaged throughout the West Bank, attacking Palestinians and stealing property, according to local sources.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors Israeli settlement activities in the north of the West Bank said a group of settlers from the illegal settlement of Gilad set up ambushes for Palestinian vehicles travelling on a main road near the town of Howara, south of Nablus, attacking and stoning them.

Ratib al-Jabour, coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in southern West Bank city of Hebron, told WAFA that settlers from the illegal settlements of Maon and Havat Maon attacked Palestinian shepherds and farmers east of the town of Yatta, south of Hebron, and prevented them from harvesting their crops of wheat and barley and from replanting the trees the settles had cut down a few days ago.

Meanwhile, coordinator of the National Committee against the Apartheid Wall, Ahmad Salah, told WAFA that a number of settlers from the illegal settlement of Eliezer removed and stole metal bars marking borders of land in the village of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, in addition to stealing the barbed wire that surrounded the land.

He said residents found a flyer left by the settlers in their land in which an Israeli settlers group called the Green Berets claimed its responsibility for the damage caused to the land.

Jewish settlers damage Palestinian-owned cars

Extremist Jewish settlers on Thursday evening attacked Palestinian-owned cars puncturing their tyres and daubing them with racist graffiti reading "death to Arabs" and "revenge", in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Wahat al-Salam near Beit Shemes in occupied Jerusalem which is a mixed neighbourhood.

This attack on Palestinian property was carried out to retaliate the Knesset's rejection of a draft law that would legalise Jewish settlement outposts in the West Bank, as well as the court decision to evacuate the Olbana neighbourhood in Beit Eil.

The Israeli occupation police spokeswoman said that unknown persons in Navieh Shalom mixed neighbourhood attacked cars and wrote on them “death to Arabs” and “revenge for Olbana.”

This neighbourhood was established in 1969 with the aim of promoting peace and coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. The neighbourhood is inhabited by 54 Palestinian and Israeli families with mixed schools.

Despite the fact that an Israeli court had ruled in favor of Palestinian landowners against attempts by Jewish settlers to take their land, settlers, protected by soldiers, Wednesday prevented Palestinian farmers from reaching their agricultural land east of the town of Yatta, north of Hebron, under the pretext the land is an Israeli military area, according to a local activist.

An Israeli court had issued a ruling last year ordering return of the land to its Palestinian owners.

Ratib al-Jabour, coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in southern Hebron, told WAFA that settlers from the Israeli settlement of Susiya prevented farmers from harvesting their land planted with wheat and barley.

He said soldiers protected the settlers as they pushed the farmers out of their land in an attempt to force them to abandon their land in order to seize it for settlement expansion.

An Israeli army spokesman said a fire had broken out in the area and the security guard of Gvaot Olam outpost brought a team to extinguish it, after which Palestinians attacked the guard with clubs. The incident passed without injuries, he said.

Israeli forces arrived at the scene and detained five Palestinians, the spokesman added. Daghlas named three of those detained as Yousif Fayiq Hanani, Fayiz Fursan Hanani and Afif Hanani.

Separately, locals told Ma'an that Israeli settlers gathered near Eli settlement between Nablus and Ramallah on Tuesday night, to protest as Israeli forces prepare to relocate a settlement outpost near Beit El.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got legal approval on Wednesday for his plan to remove five settler buildings erected on private Palestinian land in the Ulpana outpost.

Jewish settlers cordon off Nablus village

Jewish settlers have been besieging the Khirbat Tana village to the east of Nablus since Tuesday night, Ghassan Daghlas, monitoring settlement activity north of the West Bank, said.

He warned in a statement on Tuesday night that the settlers might be planning an attack on the village, which is located to the far east of Nablus province.

Daghlas said that the village is completely isolated and even telephone contacts with its inhabitants were difficult if not impossible.

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated Tuesday that he would fire any minister who votes for the so-called “regulation bill”, meant to legalize illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank, during a Knesset vote that will be held on Wednesday.

Israeli Ynet News reported that Netanyahu stated that any minister of deputy minister who back the bill will be fired as the proposed bill, if passed, would lead to the legalization of Ulpana illegal outposts in the Beit El settlement, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, and the rest of the illegal Jewish settlement outposts installed by extremist settlers on privately owned Palestinian lands.

The Ynet News added that after Netanyahu made his announcement, ministers of the Shas religious movement said that they not attend the voting session, adding that ministers of the Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Our Home) fundamentalist party of Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, will likely skip the vote.

The website also said that Shas movement’s members of Knesset said that they will vote for the bill.

The “Regulation Bill” was proposed by member of Knesset, Zevulun Orlev, from the Jewish Home (Habayit Hayehudi) party, with the sole purpose of avoiding the implementation of a ruling made by Israel’s High Court that ruled in favor in evicting five homes illegally built in Ulpana outpost.

But the Israeli Prime Minister provided another plan that calls for relocating the homes to a military zone in Beit El settlement.

Netanyahu said that his government has to deal with what he called with “infiltrators” (referring to alleged Palestinian attempts to attack the settlements) and several major domestic challenges, adding that “such issues can only be dealt with by a unified government”, the Ynet said.

On the ground, several hundred settlers held a protest, on Tuesday evening, in front of the High Court in Jerusalem; the protest was held in front of a protest tent installed by a number of settlers who are holding a hunger strike.

The protesters were joined by Member of Knesset, Danny Danon, of Netanyahu’s Likud Party, and the Rabbi of Keryat Arba’ illegal settlement in Hebron, Dov Lior, in addition to heads of local councils of several illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The Ynet quoted Lior stating that “the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people”, and called on the ministers to vote for what he called “true democracy” during the cabinet vote on Wednesday.

Addressing Likud MK’s, Danon said that they should remember “what they promised the voters during elections”, adding that the removal of the Ulpana outpost “is a surrender that will be followed by thousands of concessions in the West Bank”, the Ynet said.

The Ynet further reported that some settlers living in the Ulpana outposts have started preparations for resist the evacuation, adding that, several days ago, the settlers brought a truck loaded with tires, likely to be placed and burnt in the streets to obstruct the army.

Furthermore, The Ynet said that local Rabbis in the settlement are likely the ones who determine the level of resistance to the evacuation, and added that this does not mean that extremists will not resort to violence.

Israel’s settlements in occupied Palestine, even those built on what Israel dubs as “state lands”, are illegal under International Law and the Fourth Geneva Convention to which Israel is a signatory.

The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank had to peace talks with the government of Netanyahu due to the ongoing Israeli violations against the Palestinians in the West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

These violations include the demolition of homes and the destruction of private property, ongoing settlement construction and expansion, the escalating violence carried out by extremist settlers, and the ongoing Israeli military invasions into Palestinians communities in the occupied territories. 5 june 2012

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has presented a plan to relocate the illegal Ulpana hill outpost, currently located on private

Palestinian land, to the Beit El settlement near Ramallah in the central West Bank.

Netanyahu suggested the plan in order to defuse the growing controversy within his cabinet over the demolition of the illegal outpost. This plan aims to move Israeli settlers from the outpost to an illegal settlement constructed on confiscated Palestinian land.

Netanyahu’s plan included three stages: The first stage involves relocating the illegal outpost and moving it several hundred yards away to the settlement of Beit El. The second stage includes reinforcing the settlement movement by building 10 housing units in the illegal settlement for every house moved the final stage entails deterring future petitions by having Israel battle any legal motion presented on the outpost issue. The PLO as well as the Palestinian Authority have condemned this plan.

Acting PA Chief, Mahmoud Abbas, who has been pressured by the Obama administration as well as Israel to resume negotiations with Israel, has repeatedly claimed that the Palestinian Authority will only resume negotiations when Israel halts all settlement activities. This, as PLO chief negotiator has met his Israeli counterpart many times in the past few months.

About 30 Jewish families live in the five three-story apartment buildings in the Ulpana neighborhood of the Beit El settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Netanyahu stated that the construction of ten settlement units for each evacuated building will lead to residence of one thousand more new settlers in Beit El.

Israeli soldiers fire at Jerusalemite demo

Israeli occupation troops fired rubber bullets and teargas canisters at a group of Jerusalemites near Abu Dis town in a bid to disperse their demonstration on Monday night.

Local sources said that soldiers stationed in a military base near the town also fired stun grenades at the young men, who were protesting the Israeli occupation authority’s policy in the holy city.

The Israeli occupation forces provocatively search Jerusalemite youths and launch night raids on their homes other than protecting Jewish settlers’ attacks on the Arab suburbs.

Meanwhile, a coalition against racism in 1948 occupied Palestine asked for an investigation into the attack by Jewish settlers on six Palestinian female students from occupied Jerusalem who were on a trip in Tel Aviv.

The Jewish settlers threw stones and empty bottles at the students of the Tur intermediate school for girls.

4 june 2012

Jewish settlers burn Palestinian crops south of Al-Khalil

Jewish settlers attacked and burnt vast areas cultivated with wheat in Yatta town, south of Al-Khalil, on Monday, local sources said.

Members of the local committees in the town told the PIC that the settlers attacked the cultivated land under protection of Israeli occupation forces.

They said that the dunums, cultivated with wheat, are owned by Annajar family.

In another incident, Jewish settlers intercepted and threatened Palestinians of a hamlet to the south of Al-Khalil city near Dura town, local sources said, adding that the citizens were trying to reach their fields.

Israeli sources reported Saturday that a military investigation revealed that extremist teenage settlers from the Yitzhar settlement, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, attacked last Saturday, a wounded Palestinian man, tied him up and beat him despite the fact that he was shot by a settlement guard.

Najah As-Safady was injured by settler gunfire during clashes that took place near the Palestinian village of Orif, in the northern West bank district of Nablus.

The clashes took place after a number of settlers burnt a Palestinian olive orchard.

Israeli Ynet News reported that As-Safady was shot after the young settlers shouted “armed Palestinian”; they then tied him up and assaulted him.

According Israeli Ynet News, a search “suggested that the man had a knife”.

Israeli soldiers removed the settlers from the scene and the man was evacuated by the soldiers. An officer told the Ynet that an investigation was initiated, and that he believes the army will eventually identify the perpetrators.

One of the officers said that the incident could have ended with a murder, "but the soldiers intervened in time".

The officer also stated that the “open fire” policy states that live
ammunition is only to be used when there is an immediate threat to
someone’s life, Ynet added.

The online daily further stated that the military division commander has decided to confiscate the weapons of the so-called “Emergency Squad” in Yitzhar settlement after an incident that took a week earlier in which one of the guards shot and wounded a Palestinian.

The incident took place near Aseera Al-Qibliyya Palestinian village; the settlers also fired-rubber coated bullets that are only supposed to be issued to the army, while one of the settlers was wearing a police hat.

One of the soldiers was standing next to the settler, who took aim and shot the Palestinian; the army decided that the soldier’s action was “within reason”.

Related

B'Tselem; Video documentation: Yitzhar settlers burn crops shoot and injure a Palestinian in the presence of Israeli soldiers who fail to stop them – B’Tselem